Riaan Roux Photography

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The Super Moon – 5 May 2012

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Riaan Roux Comment

Supermoon - 5 May 2012

On 5 May 2012 we had a Super Moon. The term “Super Moon” (or Supermoon as some like) is not a astronomical term, but is used to best describe the effect of the moon when it comes closest to the earth. On 5 May 2012 the moon, which follows an elliptical orbit around the earth, came to within 356,955 kilometers of earth causing it to appear brighter and larger than normal.

Two Trees and SuperMoon

For some reason this years’ supermoon attracted more attention than usual with many stories all over the internet. I even heard stories that this was the biggest supermoon in 150 years, but truth is that on 19 May 2011 the moon was about 400km closer to earth! But these things happen and everyone likes a good story, and a good photo. I do not specialise in tele-lens photography and normally do not zoom into distant objects and thus only have a single zoom lens which is not of the highest quality. I did, however, manage to get a nice photo. The photo with the landscape is a composite, but it does give a nice effect and I hope you all enjoy it! You can click the images to get a larger view. Note that images are copyright and permission is required if you wish to use them elsewhere.

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Family Photos – Ivan, Ruandi & Xavier

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Riaan Roux Comment

Every now and again you get those special photoshoots which just looks extra special. Last week I had a family photoshoot in studio with Ivan, Ruandi and six month old Xavier. Xavier is their first baby and he has as great a personality as on-camera looks. He was calm the whole time and enjoyed all the attention he was getting during his baby shoot.

The first part of the shoot was a straight-forward baby shoot. Babies tend to get a little impatient after about 20 minutes of shooting them alone, so I try to get it over as soon as possible, but it was an absolute pleasure with this little boy. He was fascinated by the whole experience and would look all over the room at all the shiny things and white walls of the studio. The flashes didn’t bother him in the least and during the entire session I only got one photo of him with eyes closed. You need to keep your eye on babies when doing photography with flashes and as soon as they have blinked you take your shot. Most babies are unlikely to close their eyes again unless your flashes are set too high. I usually do not set my flashes to more than 1/4th power to prevent flash reflex of their sensitive eyes. Many people believe flashes are harmful to babies eyes, but this is untrue.

After Xaviers’ baby shoot I did a couple with mom and then some with dad and completed the set with the whole family. It is important to come up with easy poses in which the little one always feels like it is just a game. Seating mom and dad with their backs to each other and the little one between them on the front always gets a couple of interesting looks as the little one will look over his shoulder at mom and then dad. A few tickles and this becomes a lovely game to them in which you will grab some amazing shots. The clicking of the camera may also get you one or two of those “wondering” looks which adds to cuteness!

More photos can be seen in the Family Photography Gallery

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Calibrate your Monitor

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Riaan Roux Comment

I was recently forced to switch over to a new monitor for editing photos after my last working CRT monitor blew something inside and went up in a puff of smoke. After looking around at various makes and models of new generation monitors I eventually settled on an AOC 2235 23″ LCD Monitor. This was a big switch considering that I have used CRT monitors for editing in the past. Many people hace asked my why I still use CRT monitors, and the question is quite simple… they are consistent. With LCD and LED monitors there is always a slight colour or contrast variance depending on the angle from which it is viewed. Event these small variances can affect the way that you edit photos and affect the way the photos look when printed. Obviously you want photos to look the way that they were edited and look on screen!

The AOC 2235 is a great little monitor with a wide 23″ screen and great colour out of the box… for gaming and general use. When it came down to editing photos I soon realised I needed to calibrate the monitor to produce images that would look on print as they did on screen. I went back to some monitor calibration tools I have used in the past to get the screen to display exactly what I was printing. To check and set some of the most important settings I turned to a great website which has some test images you can use to calibrate your monitor over at The Lagom LCD monitor test pages. The second tool I used was a freeware Gamma Adjustment utility called QuickGamma.

It is vital to any professional photographer that what they see on screen is what is printed. Irrespective of whether the client has a calibrated monitor to view the photos you supply on disk, you want the look to be as you edited them when they go to print. As a note you should always mention to your customers that images viewed on their own PC may not display as they would when printed and that you have edited the photos for print, and not for display.

Though I am very happy with my new AOC 2235 monitor I will go back to CRT any day if only I was able to find a 21″ monitor of good quality again. Though the general PC user out there may think LCD and LED monitors are great they are really not that great for professional photographic editing. If you want to see what I mean then open any photo in full screen on your PC (if you have a LED or LCD monitor) and then move your head up and down and left to right to change your angle of view and note how there are changes in the colour, contrast and lightness of the picture in some areas. These changes may seem subtle, but they do affect a professional photographers’ editing method.

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Photography is not a game!

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Riaan Roux Comment

A macro shot from my art collection taken during late March 2012

The last month has been a little crazy. Though I never tire of taking photos it is tiring editing all the photos after the shoot. I use Lightroom 3 to speed up my workflow and catalogue my work, but it also has the added function of tracking my work and number of edits. For the last 30 days I have worked on 11509 images! Amongst these were 2 big weddings, 2 large stage events, a school sport day and a host of studio and location shoots and a couple of art snaps (just to relax!).

When you consider that you spend a minimum of 1 minute per photo doing adjustments and small fixes then 11000 photos becomes 183 hours of work. The average working individual works 40hours a week (5 days & 8 hours a day), or 160 hours a month, so editing 11000 takes up a whole month to edit with an additional 20+ hours! And this does not even include the time spent doing the photography.

Wedding Photo taken during March 2012

Wedding photography is always fun to do, but they are also the most work. I more often than not find myself happily clicking away during a wedding filling up my various memory cards without concern for the number of shots I take. After much practice it has become a simple process of checking the source light and background to compose the next great shot and I easily achieve a shot rate of 2000 or more photos in a 6-8 hour wedding. But once I get home and download all these photos I again realise, much as the person who wakes up with a hangover and swears never to drink again, that I take too many “keepers” (photos which will make it to the wedding album) and load myself with too much editing work. But, for me, it is an addiction. Even when I know I have more than enough photos to make the bridal couple happy I simply continue taking photos because I see the next great scene unfolding before me.

I spent half my day today just updating my galleries on my website, so take a look around.

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Miss Matlosana 2012 Pageant

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Riaan Roux Comment
On 10 March 2012 I was contracted to do photography at the annual Miss Matlosana 2012 pageant held at Rio Casino in Klerksdorp. The event was organised by Talent Africa with proceeds going to Cancer Research in South Africa in remembrance of the late Joubert Barnard of the Your City Newspaper. The event was held in The Barnyard Theatre at Rio Casino.

The Barnyard theatre is high ceilinged theatre with high stage lighting which is mostly set up for lighting the stage, not ramps where the contestants would be walking. The front T-section of the ramp had more back lighting than front which, from a photography point of view, would require fill flash to light up the contestants properly. Since I did not really want to use on camera flash since it would cast nasty background shadows, I opted for twin flashes on high stands on either sides of the judges. The flashes were set to 1/4 power which would be enough to light up the contestants at f/4, ISO400 with a shutter speed of 1/80-1/125 without filling up the ambient light. At the back of the stage the lighting was still poor and reaching that far with the flashes meant killing the ambient light, so I pretty much avoided long range shots.

There were four categories with age groups ranging from 5-7, 8-12, 13-15 and 16+. When you are a spectator at such a pageant it seems as if things flow along at a fairly slow pace, but when you are there to do photography time seems to speed up. You know you need to get a number of great shots for the contestants and the parents and the pressure is high. Getting good photos which are in focus with no blur and correctly lit and exposed becomes a challenge with the constant motion of the contestants. If you have done photography at such an event where the lighting is very subdued you will understand how hard this becomes! It seems at times as if the contestants rush onto the ramp and rush off and you always wonder if you got enough shots.

Even with a shutter speed of 1/80 there is so much “slow” light which may be caused by strong back lighting that blurring on the edges of you subject is inevitable on some shots. “Slow” light is light which is equivalent to or stronger than the light produced by your flashes. When you have slow light motion at a slower shutter speeds (slower than 1/160) tends to add a blurring on the edges of your subjects. Since the object was to get some ambient light into the scenes the shutter speed could not be raised too high as the backgrounds would fade to black. The alternative of using the flash on the camera is unappealing as this would effectively destroy the ambient light and light up ugly backgrounds and cause strange harsh shadows in the far background.

Since the contestants are in virtual constant motion you need to keep an eye on background for “slow” lighting caused by stage lights and know where your flashe “sweet spots” are (points on the ramp or stage where your flashes fill up the light without having to compete with other light sources) and time your shots accordingly. Even with hair and dresses flowing I managed to catch great shots by timing the shots to fall within the flash sweet spots. If you are are a photographer planning on doing a ramp shoot with subdued ambient lighting then it is strongly advised you practice this with a photographer who has done it before so you can learn how the contestants move and what settings work best for your camera model. It is also advised that you use a “fast” lens.

Using an on-camera flash is an option, but this kind of photography can be done by anyone with a newer generation dSLR camera, and really flattens the look and adds harsh background shadows. Invest in a set of wireless transmitters for your flash or flashes and a set of stands to put them on and a good “fast” lens and you will soon discover the joy of light and how you can capture a scene in a whole new way.

Once you learn how to combine ambient and artificial lighting (from your flash units) you discover what photography is really all about.

Equipment used:
- Sony A55 body with Sony 28-75 f/2.8 SAM lens
- Sony a230 body with Minolta 50mm Prime f/1.7 lens
- 2 x GN42 flash units with remote flash triggers
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COSATU Strike & Protest March – Klerksdorp

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Riaan Roux Comment

COSATU Strike and Protest March - Klerksdorp

On Wednesday, 7 March 2012, I took to the streets with my camera to capture a few photos of the COSATU Strike and Protest march in Klerksdorp. I arrived at the starting point of the protest march at around 9am and took a few shots of the rapidly growing crowd. By 10:30 when they started their march into the Klerksdorp City centre along Oliver Tambo street the crowd had grown to between 2000 and 3000 people. This is quite a crowd for Klerksdorp!

Though there was a strong police presence to watch over the protesters, no incidents of violence or unruly behaviour was noted.

White COSATU members supported the protest march

Considering the nature of the protest march one would expect some angry faces and rebellious behaviour, but the crowd was actually very friendly and well behaved. A first for me was also the presence of a number of white people supporting the protest march and even wearing COSATU support T-Shirts. Before the march started there were a few short speeches and announcements by the marshals explaining the purpose of the protest march and asking the crowd to adhere to the instructions of the marshals. When the protest march got under way the large crowd was split into 4 smaller groups by the marshals with a gap of about 50 metres between them. This served to prevent pushing and shoving and reduce tension as a whole. Since the marshals also had these smaller groups to control things moved along much more easily and without incident Credit should be given to the COSATU marshals who also kept the protesters away from side-walks and cars to prevent damage and disruption to businesses. Many businesses had closed their doors before the protesters arrived, but by the time the first groups had passed many re-opened their doors when they noticed that the crowd was behaving themselves.

A protester with poster near end of the march

Other than traffic disruption, which was well managed by the traffic department and police, the crowd of protesters moved smoothly through the town. The pace was kept intentionally slow, not to purposefully disrupt traffic, but as a show of force to the “powers that be” that they felt strongly for the issues at hand.

Though the main reason for the protest march was to protest the implementation of the e-Tolling system in Gauteng, the main focus in the Klerksdorp area was the protest against the use of Labour Brokering. Some protesters did brandish posters against the e-Tolling system, but the majority carried anti-Labour Brokering placards.

When the march reached its end at Voortrekker road the groups were combined again to create on large crowd in preparation for the keynote address and handing over of the memorandum. When the crowd started merging I looked out for a higher vantage point from where I could capture the “Sea of Red”. I spoke to a local business owner who had a balcony above his shop and I quickly got permission to go up the stairs to capture the crowd from above.

COSATU Protesters from above looked like a Sea of Red

Much of the crowd had already started moving around the corner, but I did manage to capture a few shots. The crowd looked much more daunting from above, even in the smaller groups they had been broken up into.

Tips for Photographers

Doing this kind of photography requires some confidence as you need to move in and amongst the throng to capture good photos. Zoom or Telephoto lenses just never seem to capture the details as well as shorter lenses when you get in close. You need to read the crowd and decide for yourself if it is safe to move amongst them. At no point did I feel threatened or in any danger by this crowd, but you should be aware that a crowd can turn at any moment. In Rustenburg the march was going well until a careless driver struck one of the protesters with her car.

COSATU Protesters Marching

Irrespective of who was at fault in the incident, it turned a crowd who were fairly organised and well-behaved into a violent group. If you decide to venture into this kind of photography you should also note that it is best to keep moving. You do not want to stick to a specific area or with a specific group of people. Some protesters enjoy being photographed and will often group together as they all want to be in the photo. This can cause crowding and tension and make the marshal’s job more difficult. As soon as people start thronging because of your camera and the desire to “be in the shot”, you as a photographer might become the result of violence when the protesters start stepping on each others toes! Get the shot of what is naturally happening, don’t force situations. Keeping focus on a group for too long can become dangerous to you and those around you if you have an emotionally charged crowd.

All photos shot with a SONY A55 and 28-75mm SAM Lens.

More photos can be found in my Facebook Album

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Daniel Novela – Photographing Oil Paintings

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Riaan Roux Comment

Daniel Novela

Today I was asked by Daniel Novela to photograph 5 of his newest oil paintings for his online gallery at his website. He was referred to me by a previous artist customer.

Daniel Novela is a well known artist not only in the community of Stilfontein but all over South Africa. He has also sold artworks in New York and Belgium. Daniel recently featured in an article in the popular SABC Entertainment Program, Pasella.

The artworks I was given to photograph ranged from fairly small artworks of about 20cm x 15cm to two larger items of about 60cm x 45cm. He needed photos that also captured the textures in the oil paintings. He said that a number of photographers had tried to photograph his work but that he was not satisfied as the texture of the brush strokes was lost in many of the photos. Losing the texture in an oil painting loses the dimension and identity of the artist.

Since I have done photography of oil paintings before and know how important the texture is to the artist. I was able to provide him with photographic images that showed the texture and gave a feeling of depth to the images. The technique is simple once you study light and how shadows form on textured surfaces. The trick is to balance light and shadow so that shadow is not dominant.

Daniel Novela Art

In many oil paintings the artists’ technique and identity is captured in the way they apply the paint to the canvas. The type, angle and feel of every brush stroke is unique to every artist. This is also why an artists painting is not easily copied since these brush strokes are similar to ones handwriting, which is unique to every person. Knowing this, one can think that the texture of the oil painting then becomes quite important as an oil painting without its texture becomes just another pretty picture without an identity. Imagine a hand written letter versus a printed letter. A printed letter has no identity and could have been written by anyone, but a hand written letter is identifiable by the handwriting style.

The Method

If you simply use an on-board flash from even the most expensive dSLR camera, the flash would flatten the image by filling every shadow which effectively destroys the texture. To capture the texture you need two light sources to either side of the image to purposefully create a slight shadow. This can be achieved with diffused studio lights or strobe/flash units and/or bounce cards. The first light source to the left would create shadows where the textures of the oil painting is lifted depending on the angle relative to the camera. You do not want deep shadows, so the angle should not be too sharp. But this single light source alone would leave behind harsh shadows which may become unappealing. A second, slightly lower powered, light source to the right was used to lift the shadows without lighting them up too much. When applied correctly the oil painting has a “glisten” to it which shows just a slight shadow and reveals the texture!

Daniel Novel Texture Sample

You can click on the texture sample image for a larger view of how the texture shows on the oil painting. There are slight shadows which just lift the texture to make it visible, but the second light source lifts the shadows with just enough light to fade the shadow without killing the texture effect.

This same lighting technique has been used to photograph works for other artists who need to see the texture in the oil paintings, but can be applied to other textured surfaces as well. For some artists who include greater textures into their paintings with hard lifting ridges the texture is vital, so knowing how to capture the texture using light is important. You will need to adjust the angle of the primary light source to a shallower angle when the textures are very pronounced to prevent the shadows from becoming too deep.

You can find out more about Danial Novela, his art and his life as an artist from his website at http://www.danielnovela.co.za

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Live on Stage – Nicholis Louw

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Riaan Roux Comment

Nicholis Louw

Last night, 29 February 2012, Maritza and I had the privilege to do photography at the live stage performance of Nicholis Louw at the Klerksdorp City Theatre. The show was opened by Megan Pereira, a young lady you should look out for in future! The show was great as can be expected by one of South Africa’s top Afrikaans artists. Nicholis sang most of his popular songs and threw in a couple of surprises as well, such as his rendition of the Gummy Bears theme song, which entertained the adults more than the crowd of young ones he had called forward to sit in front of the stage. Nicholis is a very energetic performer on stage and keeping up with him is hard work, from a photographers perspective. Nicholis has an amazing on stage personality and his audience interaction during songs and during pauses between songs really keeps everyone entertained.

Megan Pereira

Photography, as with any stage performance, was a challenge. The light setup was different from most other stage performances I have covered in the past. The lighting was set up close to the artist and only about shoulder height. Though this looks great for the audience it presents a photographer with rapidly varying lighting requiring virtually constant adjustment in camera. Since both Maritza, my second photographer, and I shoot in full manual we had to keep our finger rolling through settings all through the show. Any kind of automatic mode gives unpredictable results in stage photography. Aperture mode cannot keep up with the constant changes in lighting and Shutter mode usually bumps the aperture wide open, which is not desirable in all cases and makes focusing very difficult. I shot the performance using my Sony A55 and 28-75mm f/2.8 lens. Maritza used the Sony a230 and a Minolta 50mm Prime f/1.7 lens.

Nicholis Louw

Stage photography is tricky at the best of times, and a fast lens is a must. For manual settings on the A55 I use f/4 on the 28-75mm lens with an ISO of 200-400 and shutter speed of 100-160 depending on how much light comes in. The noise on the A55, even at ISO 800 is very little so I can push the shutter speed up even further if need be. The odd thing with stage lighting, especially the modern moving lights, is that they can cause blurring on edges irrespective of shutter speed. I have shots taken at much higher shutter speeds that still show blurring where moving lights crossed the image. Many of these newer moving lights introduce another element of motion you need to contend with. The best advice I can give is to learn the motions of your artist. If you carefully watch them for a while you quickly notice patterns and you learn to anticipate pauses in their motion which is where you want to snap your shots. You also need to learn to pre-focus and wait for shots within your planned focus area. Often these don’t come through and you have to refocus for a new setup, but this is worth it when you start seeing results. The other problem is that you may get hundreds of great shots which are in focus, but then the lips, position of the head or other element may not fit into the image to make it a good photo. There are some photos I choose to publish which aren’t even perfectly in focus, but the composition makes up for the loss (but obviously the focus needs to be acceptable!).

More photos from the show can be found in the Facebook Album

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Image Stabilisation and the Sony A55

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Riaan Roux Comment

The Sony A55, besides being a great camera, provides great image stabilisation. Like most modern cameras that employ VR (Vibration Reduction) and IS (Image Stabilisation), the Sony uses “Sensor Shift” image stabilisation in the camera body. This is a serious advantage over brands such as Canon and Nikon which require the owner to purchase specialised lenses to provide the same functionality. Here is a test video demonstrating the image stabilisation of the Sony A55 hand-held while walking. I chose to use video to demonstrate the stabilisation as images cannot convey the power of sensor shift stabilisation in the Sony A55. This same stabilisation is directly translated into your photos, so you get a clear advantage, even using non-VR or IS lenses!

I used to produce videos as well, but gave up that profession in 2006 and now only do photography, but I still employ many of the stabilisation techniques I used in video to capture great photos! If I receive enough requests via comments or emails I will write an article for my blog explaining how to get the best out of your video camera and/or still camera by employing simple stabilisation techniques.

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How do I become a Wedding Photographer?

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Riaan Roux 1 Comment

Part 2 of “How do I start a photography business?”

Firstly, and most importantly, weddings are not a training ground for photographers. Your knowledge of photography, your camera, lenses and other equipment should be beyond “beginner” level before you venture into wedding photography. You need to know how to use your camera in full manual mode and be comfortable with it. You should also know when and how to use aperture priority and shutter priority modes. You should know how to switch between settings in seconds as moments in a wedding go by very quick and a missed shot at a critical moment cannot be repeated. Never experiment or “try” a wedding just because your model and/or other outdoor photography is good. Weddings are very different from other forms of photography in that there is a constant flow of things happening beyond the photographers control which need to be captured as they happen.
Secondly, you need to cover a few weddings as a second, backup or shadow photographer in order to learn how things work and learn the flow of a wedding. You can do this by contacting experienced wedding photographers and offering to do assistant work or shadow photography for them. You may be asked to do more than just take photos, such as move lights, flash stands, hold reflectors, etc. Consider these tasks training! If you are asked to hold and control a reflector it means you are there to see how an experienced photographer does things. You could also offer your services to an engaged couple who already have a hired professional wedding photographer for free as second photographer. It is important that they already have a hired professional wedding photographer and understand that you will only be taking extras as no charge. Follow that photographer, even if you have to do so at a distance. Note how things are done and how they follow the flow of a wedding. Stay behind them at all times as this will be the best vantage point to pick up tips. Don’t bother with trying to take many photos, but learn by seeing what the professional wedding photographer does. Shadowing a professional wedding photographer also gives you an opportunity to build a portfolio of wedding photos to show to future prospective clients!
Thirdly, get backup equipment for everything you have and need to complete any shoot. This means a backup camera, lens, flash, memory cards and anything else critical to taking photos in your style. Take your equipment list and randomly remove a single item and ask yourself if you can complete a wedding shoot from start to finish without that one item. Never believe you are not going to run into problems. I have seen brand new high-end camera bodies fail after less than 200 shots! Backup batteries for each camera body is a must.

The above points are very important, but there are a number of other points which, while important, are less critical. Below are some more pointers which need serious consideration if you plan on moving into the very competitive wedding photography arena.

Camera Bodies
I often see the question: “Which camera is best for weddings” or “Can I use my Canon 550D/Nikon D3100 for weddings?”
The truth be told, yes, entry level camera bodies can be used to do wedding photography! But, and there are many other buts, you must note that you are using entry level equipment which does not equal higher end equipment. Entry level cameras are meant to be used by amateur and hobby photographers. Though in many cases they may almost match high-end bodies under certain photographic conditions they lack the sensor quality and function control found in higher end cameras. An entry level camera body can be a backup, but it is not recommended as your main camera. If you do not own at least 2 camera bodies then you should not be doing wedding photography, you must have a backup. If your camera body fails, and they do, during a wedding you risk not only the photos for the remainder of that wedding and the scorn of the couple, but also your reputation! Once word spreads that you could not complete a wedding shoot you may not only lose opportunities as a great up and coming wedding photographer, but other photographic opportunities as well!

Lenses
Kit lenses, the one that came with your entry level camera, is not enough to cover a wedding. These lenses are of significantly lower quality than professional lenses, and not only in build, but the quality of the glass too. I still have 2 kit lenses from previous camera bodies, but they are never used (except for demonstration purposes). Once you buy you first “fast” lens you soon realise how bad a kit lens is. A kit lens is usually an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens which is OK for general purpose outdoor sunlight photography, but they all suffer the same problem when lighting is poor in that the maximum aperture of f/3.5 just doesn’t allow enough light in. A “slow” lens (max aperture of f/3.5) in poor lighting conditions force you to use strong unflattering flash light and/slow shutter speeds combined with higher ISO which results in grainy and/or motion blur photos. These lenses are generally not very sharp due to cheaper production and lower quality lens glass. They all have a slight blurriness around edges of images, even when stopped down to f/8 in good light. At the very least you should invest in a 50mm Prime (or Fixed Focal) lens for your backup camera body and a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens for you main body. This combination will bring you joy in most wedding photography situations.

Flashes
You should own at least 2 flashes with a Guide Number of 32 or better. If you do not know what a flash guide number is you should not be doing wedding photography yet. Search Google for “Flash Guide Number Chuck McKern” to understand how this works.
Learn how to soften the light from your flash and how to bounce light from anything and everything! Remember that bouncing light from coloured surfaces will give a colour cast. In one case I bounced light from a best-mans shirt to get a shot! Do not put your flash on your camera and just keep it pointed at the couple as this results in very flat looking images and harsh background shadows. If you do not own a diffuser, get 2 (you need a backup) and learn to use them. If possible get a set of light stands for your flashes and a wireless trigger set so you can control direction and quality (hard/soft) of the light from your flash units without mounting on the camera. Light from wireless triggered flashes produce flattering shadows when used in combination with soft-boxes (even mini-soft-boxes) and result in photos your wedding couple will love!

Memory Cards
Choose your memory cards for wedding photography carefully. You want high quality cards and more than enough for both your camera bodies. Avoid huge memory cards which can store all your photos from start to finish. If you have done enough photography you will know that memory cards can unexpectedly corrupt, irrespective of quality of the card, and you could lose all the images. I recommend a number of smaller cards to store 300-400 photos (in RAW format) then swap out with another. If a card goes corrupt you will not lose everything. Get a high quality card holder which is weatherproof to store your cards in. Before you go to a wedding your cards should be empty! NEVER format a card at a wedding because you think it just has old photos… I have seen a wedding photographer accidentally wipe the entire pre-ceremony shots this way.

Shoot RAW
If you are not shooting your photos in RAW format you should look this up, study it, and use it. You will soon realize the advantages of RAW once you get the hang of it. Shooting in JPG mode gives you photos which are compressed in a lossy format to begin with. As you edit JPG images their quality degrades further and further with every edit and save. JPG should be reserved for your final images and your working set should consist of only RAW or TIFF images.
Once you are confident you have the above covered your next step would be to set up wedding packages and prices. This is an area which is pretty personal and there are many ways to do this. Pricing your packages is the hardest part, but this is covered in the previous article, so refer back to it if need be (link at top).

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This entry was posted in Photography Tips, Wedding Photography and tagged beginner, camera, howto, learn, lens, photographer, photography, wedding. Bookmark the permalink.